Today's topic is "The best TV doctors who aren't Dr. Who" (who is going to get a list all of his/ their own!).
I can't begin such a list without having DR. "BONES" MCCOY at the top. Played so brilliantly by the late
DeForrest Kelly, his curmudgeonly exclamations and teasing of Spock made him the best doctor the Enterprise and Star Trek ever had. Beverly Crusher never came close and we won't mention Dr. Katherine Pulaski, Dr. Julian Bashir or Dr. Phlox. The holo-doctor on Voyager was rubbish too. And anyone who mentions Karl Urban's Take on Dr. McCoy in the shite "re-imagining" will get a kick in the arse!I did like Quincy with Jack Klugman as the eponymous coroner but that as more of a detective series, although I did like the bit in the opening titles when he whipped back the sheet and all the rookie cops fainted.
I am too young to remember Dr. Kildare or Dr. Finlay's Casebook and although I do recall watching General Hospital (the UK one) I don't remember much from that at all except the episode where a Dutch student had rabies and was sick over everybody.
I do remember the TV version of Doctor In The House
based on the Richard Gordon books and the films. A quick search on Wiki reveals that it was written by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, which I didn't know but it must be why I did find it funny back then. I wouldn't say any of them were great doctors but I can remember Robin Nedwell and George Layton as Drs. Waring and Collier. The next big thing really as far as doctors was concerned was St. Elsewhere. It had a great cast but my favourites were Dr. Mark Craig (William Daniels - who was the voice of Kitt in Knight Rider) Dr. "Boomer" Morrison (David Morse - he's in The Green Mile) and Dr. Philip Chandler (a young Denzel Washington)
. Looking back at it now for this blog post, it's all flooding back - Dr. Morrison's dubious medical training and Dr. Bobby Caldwell (Mark Harmon) who was one of the first characters on TV to get HIV. I think it's fair to say they don't make them like that anymore.St Elsewhere was a big influence on Casualty and E.R. I can't for the life of me think back on any doctors from Casualty, as for me when I watched it early it was more about the frontline staff such as the nurses and the paramedics - Charlie, Duffy and Josh. I used to be an avid watcher but found that it became less about the situations (did you watch like I did trying to guess what mishaps would befall the members of the public?) and more about the characters, which descended in to soap opera.
E.R. was a bit better at handling the hospital - versus-personal balance for the most part although towards the end I stopped watching as it too spiralled into the maudlin. Perhaps with some loyalty to Casualty, I came to E.R. late and missed the series with George Clooney as Dr. Doug Ross. My favourites were Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) - his death
scene with "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" is for me a TV memory, the grumpy Dr. Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes) and of course my favourite actress Alex Kingston as Dr. Elizabeth Corday. I did like Dr. Robert "Rocket" Romano (Paul McCrane) too despite his bad luck with helicopters!I never got into Scrubs - I just found the whole lot of them annoying, which was maybe the point - and Green Wing passed me by completely.
I have to mention Dr. Simon Tam from
Firefly as played by Sean Maher(see what I did there - Simon's sister was called River, as is Alex Kingston now in Dr. Who - this doesn't happen by accident you know! - as far as sci-fi docs go, he is up there with McCoy! Not as good sadly was poor Dr. Claire Saunders (Amy Acker)from Dollhouse - not only was she badly scarred from a run in with rogue Doll Alpha, she turned out to be a Doll herself called Whiskey who had been implanted with the memories of the male Dr. Saunders who had been killed by Alpha. Not having a TV House has completely gone unnoticed, I'm afraid. And as I said to my pal Phil on the phone yesterday, Hugh Laurie will always be silly-arse George in Blackadder, even if he is now the male face of L'Oreal.
I think I have to say that my favourite TV doctor is actually a Professor and a real one at that. I love the BBC series History Cold Case and again, coming back to Quincy, the wonderful Professor Susan Black, ably supported by Dr. Xanthe Mallett (what a great name) and Professor Caroline Wilkinson
. If I had my time again, I think I would have liked to have gone into anatomy and human identification which I find fascinating, although I would have been more like Professor Black rather than the too glamorous Dr. Megan Hunt (Dana Delaney) in Body Of Proof.Onto the 4th last tune of this advent medley. I know this isn't a recent song but this year I have re-discovered Evanescence and the haunting voice of Amy Lee. This one has been played to death in our house and there are no points for guessing why I like this particular YouTube video version. Peace xxx
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